04 11 13 AFP: Leader of beleaguered DRC rebels calls for truce

 

The call
came with the rebels on the back foot as Congolese troops pounded hilltop
positions where some 200 fighters have holed up after being forced from their
last stronghold this week.

"We
order all the forces of the Congolese revolutionary army to immediately end
hostilities with the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo
[FARDC]," M23 president Bertrand Bisimwa said in a statement on Sunday.

He said
his aim was to "allow the continuation of the political process" with
Kinshasa in a
bid to end the insurgency rocking the long-troubled region since April 2012.

Bisimwa
urged rebel chiefs to "ensure the strict observance of this order by
elements under their command".

His order
was issued in the midst of fierce fighting in the mountainous region bordering Uganda and Rwanda. The FARDC forces on Sunday
launched a fresh offensive against the rebels who fled to the hills after their
base was seized Wednesday in the town of Bunagana, about 80km north of the
regional capital Goma.

According
to AFP correspondents in Ntamugenga, close to the battle zone, the fighting
raged for about eight hours and had appeared to intensify after the ceasefire
order.

"We
are pounding Mbuzi," one of three mountains in eastern DRC where the
rebels are hiding, General Lucien Bahuma told AFP by telephone earlier Sunday.
"After the artillery we will send in the troops."

A DRC
captain, speaking anonymously, said the army was "claiming back the hills.
There is shooting in the mountains of Ntamugenga, Mbuzi and Runyonyi. The
rebels are fleeing".

The lush
green hilly region has been rocked by heavy fighting for the past 10 days as
FARDC troops battle to stamp out the insurgency once and for all in the
restive, mineral-rich Nord Kivu province.

The
clashes have forced thousands from their fields and homes, and aid agencies
estimate about 10 000 refugees have streamed into Uganda.

 

 

'A
good first step'

When
contacted by AFP, M23 spokesperson Vianney Kazarama insisted that the ceasefire
order from the group's political branch would be carried out. "It is an
undisputed order," he said.

A
Congolese government's spokesman said Bisimwa's order was "perhaps a first
step but we are waiting to see what follows and we have given instructions to
our troops to act with restraint."

The head
of the UN mission in DRC (MONUSCO), Martin Kobler, said he considered the M23
order "a good first step", adding that it "must be followed by
declaring an end to the rebellion".

However,
an officer with MONUSCO told AFP there were fears of renewed fierce fighting on
Monday.

While the
UN forces have not directly participated in the battle since 25 October against
the M23 rebels, they have supported the Congolese army with logistics,
intelligence and planning.

The M23
movement was founded by ethnic Tutsi former rebels who were incorporated into
the Congolese army under a 2009 peace deal but then mutinied in April 2012,
claiming that the pact had never been fully implemented.

At their
strongest in November last year, M23 marched into Goma, a mining hub and city
of one million people, and took control for 10 days, before regional leaders
persuaded them into fresh peace talks.

But the
stop-start talks fell apart last month when Kinshasa refused amnesty for about
80 rebel leaders and the DRC army – backed by a special United Nations force –
went on the attack in a bid to end the rebellion.